Crossing the Bristol Channel

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On Thursday 23rd June the weather forecast promised us a windshift to push us northwards, so it was time to be off again.  

The wind was predicted to steadily increase during the day from N F3 to SW F5, carrying on through the night to a more lively SSW F6 by Friday evening.  Our trip across the Bristol Channel to Milford Haven was 120 nautical miles and would therefore take us into the following day with a night at sea.

Leaving the Isles of Scilly behind us

We started with a reasonable but N wind that meant we could sail but not quite in the desired direction!  We tacked to stay outside the Traffic Separation Scheme that directs ships round Lands End.
By early afternoon, the wind had backed to NW F2/3 and we found ourselves making rather slow progress. So we decided to start the engine to help us along.

The seas were lumpy and confused from past strong winds and it was rather annoying to be slopping about in the seaway with our sails constantly slapping.

We motor-sailed for the rest of the day, now at least in the right direction but the promised stronger breeze seemed a long time coming!

We were slowly overtaken by a rather unusual ship named "Wind Server".  She is an Offshore Support Vessel, presumably for the wind power industry, and was en-route to Holyhead our AIS told us.

Wind Server crossing the Bristol Channel near us

At 23:09, the wind strengthened to SW 3/4 and we turned off the engine at last.  
It is always tiring doing a night passage and this time we had the added burden of both Doug and I working through heavy colds that we had picked up at the Sea Shanty Festival the previous weekend.
But it was nice to be at sea again and the weather was kind and the night not overly dark.

We were visited by a school of dolphins on several occasions who swam under our bow and the young ones splashed in and out of the water in the seas level with our cockpit.  This was quite a surprise at first but then just great to watch.  Sometimes one would flick his tail hard to create a perfect disc of phosphorescence behind him.

We took 3 hr watches and my turn was at 03:00 - still dark and rather tiring with little sleep!  I was attacked by the munchies, so had First Breakfast at 04:00 - very nice!  Later on my 06:00 watch I managed to fit in Second Breakfast.  It's funny how much food you seem to want to eat during night watches.

At 09:00 we were 10 miles short of the entrance to Milford Haven and glad to have the end of our journey in sight.  We finally dropped anchor in Dale at 11:20 and then dropped into our bunks to sleep.

Waking at 14:00 we felt reasonably rested but rather disorientated - was it time for our Third Breakfast?

We spent the rest of the day cosily at anchor and enjoying the news about the successes in the 2 local by-elections for the Lib-Dems and Labour.

Crossing the mouth to Milford Haven at 05:30 with a rising wind

Next day it was off at the crack of dawn to move the 10 miles to Neyland Yacht Haven to sit out 2 days of very strong SW F6/7 winds and heavy showers.  On the way we heard a discussion on VHF between Bangor Lifeboat and Milford Haven Coastguard with the coastguard officer telling the lifeboat they owed him a lobster for getting him up so early!

Secure at Neyland with the wind rising

It was great to have lunch ashore in the very welcome Manillas restaurant including hot chocolate with whipped cream - such a luxury after our past 24 hrs.







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